DIY: A Blessing & A Curse

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When we moved into our new home we had to make a lot of design decisions (and we still have a lot more to make). One thing we decided was that we didn’t want to put a dresser in our bedroom-we wanted to put a little seating area instead. That meant that our closet was going to have to be extremely organized with lots of storage areas to fit everything we had. It took us a while to get this project started, so in the meantime our closet was a complete DISASTER. I’m a little embarrassed to share these before pictures with you all!

Before:

As you can see, everything was still in suitcases, boxes, bags, whatever was available. It looked awful, made it impossible to find specific things, and was embarrassing!!!

We made our plan for the layout, and all of the materials for the closet came from Home Depot. We knew we needed drawers, shelves, lots of hanging space, and OF COURSE space for shoes & bags!

First we had to clear everything out and remove all the existing shelves. My husband moved the light switch from inside the closet to the outside (isn’t he amazing!!). He also took off the existing base molding and painted a white semi gloss 3/4 of the way up the walls so it would match the color of our built-ins.

After assembling some of the pieces in the living room, it was time to start the installation!

Since we have two toddlers at home we really wanted to ensure that all the pieces were sturdy and installed correctly. We used brackets to make sure none of the pieces would move or tip over.

Once we had all the pieces installed we had to go around and caulk, add trim where needed, and put the baseboard back on. As you can see there were some pretty big gaps between the pieces in some areas.

We used Power Grab glue to glue down the trim. Here are some pictures of the trim:

This closet is officially FINISHED now and it is everything I dreamed about! It has a space for everything we need and keeps everything organized. Plus it’s a lot brighter in there since we went with white!!

There have been some big changes happening in our household lately! My husband and I are expecting our first baby in less than 2 weeks, so we have been busily trying to prepare for her arrival! One of the biggest changes we made was deciding to move! We made this decision over the winter and very recently we moved closer to my husband’s family (another bonus about moving: the area we’re living in now is much more affordable! Yay for being able to save more money!).

Anyways, we wanted to move and get settled in before our baby’s arrival, and one of the top projects on my list was the nursery closet.

There was nothing essentially wrong with the original closet: it was your very standard closet with a bar for hanging clothes and a top shelf. However, we were extremely blessed and received a lot of gifts for this little girl, and there just would have been no neat and organized way to store everything. So I begged and pleaded with my husband until he agreed to build her an organization system! And let me say, it turned out to be AMAZING.

In our old house all of our tools were in the basement, which was nice because we could work during all sorts of weather, but ultimately was very loud in the house and created a lot of dust. Also, our basement did not have the best lighting. So it’s really nice that now we can store all of our tools in the garage and have actual daylight to work with!

We bought all of our supplies from Home Depot, including the fabric bins (you just can’t beat Martha Stewart products). We bought the MDF wood because it was already prestained and painted, which meant a lot less work for us! We took measurements of the closet and decided we wanted to be able to fit 6 shelves in the center. My husband first cut the 6 shelves using the expresso MDF and attached them with screws to the long white center MDF pieces. After they were all attached we carried it upstairs & put it in the closet.

As you can see, some of the shelves also have an expresso backing. We added those for extra stability and to make sure everything was completely straight.

After that was done, we worked on installing the shelves. We added a long shelf that goes across the entire top of the closet (I wanted this area to store diapers and wipes), and we also added 2 smaller shelves above the bottom clothing bars. These smaller shelves can really be used for anything, but at the moment they are being used for blanket storage!

After the shelves were put into place the final item on the list was the hanging rods! What’s really nice about the hanging rods and the shelves (especially the bottom shelves), is that they can be easily removed. When this baby gets older, or if we decide to sell this house in the future and move, and someone older moves into this space, the shelves and rods can be removed to fit longer clothing, such as dresses.

What I really love about this closet are all the cute clothes it displays! We bought our hangers and clothing dividers from BabiesRUS, and I think the clothing dividers are such a great idea. I can easily organize and sort all of her clothes to know what size they are.

The rest of our nursery isn’t quite finished, but it’s close! I’m just waiting on some final artwork pieces to hang up!

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About Me:

I'm just a girl who has fallen in love with home design, DIY projects, and photography. By day I'm a SAHM to two darling little girls, but I also *love* to learn how to improve and update my house (without spending a lot of money!). I'm really lucky to have a great husband that is super supportive of all my design craziness (and a great handyman!). I love learning new things and expanding my skills.